The Kangaroo King

ClientNational Geographic Australia; National Geographic International

Year2014

DistributorNational Geographic

DirectorBettina Dalton; Rebecca Vallis

ProducerBettina Dalton

The scorching interior of the oldest continent is home to one of Australia’s toughest inhabitants– the mighty Red Kangaroo. In this inhospitable yet magnificent land “Rusty” takes on everything the sunburnt country can throw at him.

From the moment he is born Rusty’s quest for life begins, as he hauls his tiny body to his mothers pouch. Establishing Australia’s dramatic arid interior using image stabilised aerial cinematography, we are drawn into Rusty’s world. Extremely rare footage of a Red Kangaroo birth and specialised in-pouch cameras capture an intimate portrait of Rusty’s development from within the pouch.

We are introduced to Rusty’s formidable neighbours through close encounters with wedge-tailed eagles, dingoes, venomous snakes and giant monitor lizards. And also some entertaining and gentle neighbours such as a troupe of emus and the bizarre shingleback lizard. While Rusty must prove himself among his own kind he must also survive attacks from predators.

Above all, this is a story of survival against the odds and what it takes to endure drought, heatwave, and bushfire. Rusty struggles to prove his strength, not only in the conquest for dominance, but against the very land itself. The land upon which his species has evolved over tens of thousands of years, and that still manages to challenge his very existence.